Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. Two-century trend of Army suicide decrease during war reversed in past two decades

While army suicides have historically decreased during wartime, that trend appears to have reversed in recent decades, a new study of U.S. records finds. Researchers poring over nearly 200 years of data found that unlike earlier times when there was a decline in suicide rates among U.S. Army soldiers during and just after wars, the rate has risen significantly since 2004, according to the report in JAMA Network Open. FDA panel votes unanimously in favor of Horizon's thyroid eye disease drug

Independent advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously in favor of Horizon Therapeutics Plc's experimental treatment for active thyroid eye disease, taking the drug closer towards potential approval. If approved, teprotumumab, a type of immunotherapy, is expected to become a standard of care for the vision-threatening autoimmune disorder, which currently has no approved therapies. GSK's ViiV seeks marketing license for baby-friendly HIV pill

British drugmaker GSK applied on Friday for a license to market its HIV drug dolutegravir in a formulation designed to be easier for babies and children who are living with the virus to swallow. About 1.7 million children have HIV, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations agency UNAIDS says. Roche's Tecentriq cocktail scores trial success in melanoma

A late-stage clinical trial has shown therapy combining Roche's immunotherapy Tecentriq with two of its other drugs helped people with a form of advanced melanoma, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday. The study met its primary aim of showing progression-free survival in patients with previously untreated BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma, Roche said. End of life planning tied to longer survival with terminal illness

(Reuters Health) - Terminally-ill patients who discussed their options for end-of-life care tended to survive longer than those who had not, a small clinical trial in Denmark found. The authors originally set out to learn if advance care planning influenced whether terminally-ill patients died at home or in the hospital. But they also noticed a marked difference in how many trial participants lived for a year or more and decided to take a closer look. Ebola spreads in Congo after militants attack treatment camp: WHO

Cases of the deadly Ebola virus have risen in the Democratic Republic of Congo where health care workers remain largely cut off from the disease's hotspots since militants attacked their camp, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Twenty-seven Ebola cases were confirmed in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the week through Dec. 10, against an average of seven in the last three weeks, WHO said. FDA says Amarin can market fish-oil derived therapy for reducing heart attack risk

U.S. health regulators on Friday approved expanding the heart benefit claims Amarin Corp can make in promoting its drug Vascepa to include reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in high-risk patients, opening a multibillion-dollar market opportunity. The decision comes a month after an independent panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously in favor of allowing the broader claims based on positive clinical trial data. Sarepta shares surge after surprise approval of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy drug

Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc soared 31% on Friday after U.S. regulators shocked Wall Street by approving the company's treatment for a muscle-wasting disorder less than four months after rejecting the drug over safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration in August declined to approve the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) treatment, Vyondys 53, citing a risk of infection and kidney toxicity. U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 52, hospitalizations to 2,409

U.S. health officials said on Thursday four more deaths occurred since last week from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total toll to 52. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported 118 more hospitalized cases from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories, as of Dec. 10. The number of people hospitalized now stands at 2,409. Social media use linked to teen disordered eating behaviors

Adolescents who are active on social media may be more likely to exercise excessively, skip meals or develop other forms of disordered eating, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers surveyed 996 seventh- and eighth-graders, age 13 on average, about their use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumbler. They also asked kids about disordered eating behaviors like worrying about their weight or shape, binge eating, skipping meals or strict exercise regimens.